Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

A lmost five years later

Gage

Life was good.

Busy as fuck but good.

Right now, I was sitting in a gorgeous office overlooking my empire with my feet up on my desk, a drink in my hand. Okay, so the two private islands in the Caribbean catering to the rich, famous, and kinky weren’t technically all mine.

My two brothers were equal partners in this business and two others. We were wealthy beyond our means, enjoying the spoils of life.

Valerio, Braxton, and I had an equal share in the make it or break it business operation. We were extremely wealthy men, the resorts more than paying for themselves after a few years of operation. We’d discovered the islands after receiving a tip. Both were remote yet sought after by billionaires and recluses alike. We’d won the bid and managed to hire the best contractors and designers and after a lengthy period of time, our dreams had been born.

Granted, given our father and his worth, our wealth management firm that had been our moneymaker for years, the three of us had amassed billions. We had been called the most eligible bachelors in the city and perfect catches by People Magazine a few years before.

I took a sip of my whiskey and rolled my eyes. Of course, our notoriety had changed when both brothers had found the loves of their lives. Me? Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Once burned, you learned.

Or face additional misery.

A hell of a lot of women were simply gold-diggers who’d say anything to have access to my funds. It wasn’t going to happen.

Now I spent the lion’s share of time shifting from one island to the other. With crystalline beaches, soft rolling waves of turquoise blue water, and the paradise-like environment, what was not to love?

Except that traveling and always being on call was exhausting. I was ready to get back to San Diego, my beautiful beach house calling my name. Not much longer and I could get the fuck out of here. We’d hired great people, which helped in being able to leave the facilities for an extended period of time. Zoom video calls were a powerful tool.

The knock on the door of my office brought me out of fantasyland. “Come.”

One of the incredible recent hires now running the entire facility was Raleigh Powers. She’d come from resort royalty, her father and grandfather running some of the poshest locations in the world. With no husband and no children—yet—she was the perfect candidate to run the show.

As Raleigh walked in, an iPad in her hand, I knew it was her every other day reminder of the upcoming activities. The resort was no longer just about catering to rich men and women; we’d branched out into providing a more limited membership for family gatherings, holiday events, and other celebrations.

On a trial and limited basis.

It was just another source of income, not that we really needed it.

“Miss Raleigh,” as I liked to call her. “I see you have our upcoming schedule for the week.”

She moved closer, taking one of the two seats on the other side of my desk. “Yes, we have a busy upcoming few days. From what Travis has told me, we are fully booked, more of our guests highly… secretive than usual. I’ve had more requests for dominant men and submissive women this week than I think I’ve had since I started working here.”

“Oh, my dear manager, you will learn most of our guests have very dark proclivities, many of them stretching their boundaries with every trip. It doesn’t bother you, does it?”

She blushed. “I’ll have you know I have a kinky side.”

I didn’t doubt that. Sometimes those you’d never consider longed to be tied and flogged were the ones participating in private or group activities.

I chuckled. “It’s late. You should take some time off. What else do we have, anything unusual?”

She flipped from one screen to another, groaning after a few seconds. “We have a bachelorette group in. Not huge but they managed to hire and have brought in male strippers for a party tomorrow night.”

“Male strippers?” Somehow, I doubted our wealthy clients would appreciate that. Then again, maybe I was wrong.

“Yeah. I can try and have Travis toss them off the island.”

Travis Sinclair had been promoted to vice president, the man in charge of guest relations for both islands. He could easily make or break your getaway. That’s one reason I liked him. The man was a bulldog.

“No, leave it. We’ll just ensure there are no issues. They’re in the ballroom that can be closed off?”

“They are.”

“Then we’ll see how it goes.”

“That’s it. You should have an easy week.” She grinned and rose to her feet.

Easy.

Life hadn’t been easy since I could remember, especially after our father had died. My mother, my brothers’ stepmother had taken his death very hard. All three of us had rallied around her in addition to our heavy workload.

“You know. Take a couple days off. Lie on the beach. Drink a tropical drink. Enjoy the spoils in life.” She was instructing me?

Now she was dreaming. I hadn’t been to one of the beaches in a long time.

My phone rang seconds later. My chief of security had been another incredible hire. “Charlie. What’s up?”

“I think you need to get out by the pool, Mr. Royal. There’s been an incident.”

An incident.

It wouldn’t be a normal week if there wasn’t some incident that occurred. “I’ll be right there.”

Raleigh looked at me, shaking her head. “No rest for the weary.”

“None.”

I didn’t bother grabbing my jacket before heading out of my office. Thankfully, there was a private elevator. All I’d wanted was to enjoy a stiff drink and maybe get a good night’s sleep. Now this. What could be going on now?

Evangeline

The resort was perhaps the most spectacular place I’d been to in my entire life. I’d uploaded several pictures to my social media sites, the photographs barely doing the place justice.

I was standing near the tiki bar, facing the ocean. The sky was crisscrossed with colors, stars already bright in the skies. It had taken weeks to convince myself I could take a few days off from life. Now I was so glad I’d come. Maybe the time away was only for a few days, but for the first time in my life, I could afford the location and enjoy some time with my friends.

Even if the four of them were drinking way too much.

We were here to have a good time, but the girls had been drinking since noon, sunning themselves to the point I’d hidden under the umbrella in response. Now they were frolicking in the pool. I was certain management was happy about it. Said with tongue in cheek. The girls were being rowdy enough, they’d run off a good portion of the guests.

Well, this wasn’t necessarily the kind of resort regulars frequented for the island life and pool time.

By now, everyone was either dressing to the nines for a night at one of the casinos or the real reason for the creation of the Royal Players Club.

Kink.

I’d heard rumors about it but nothing concrete. There were no pictures, no details anywhere, including on the resort website, unless you’d been given access to the private area.

Maybe I had more of a sense of despair, the last brutal conversation with my fucking ex keeping me on edge. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t risk his threats of destroying my life coming to pass.

But this was all about Heidi, helping her incredible upcoming event be everything she’d dreamt of. What young girl didn’t fantasize about the perfect wedding? I had, inventing the perfect man, a stunning dress, and the most beautiful, tropical location where the wedding and reception would be held. Too bad I’d learned that pretty much all men were pigs. Exhaling, I turned around and took a last picture of the pool with the girls in the background.

I’d become determined to snag a few photographs of the dungeon floors, something that had never occurred before. Our guest passes didn’t include admittance to a single event or room. Damn it.

It would seem the owner was very cautious about who was allowed to see and experience any group or private event. Not that I blamed the man. Or men. I wasn’t quite certain how many people owned the place. That wasn’t a part of my media blitz hype.

What better way to send one of Connecticut’s wealthiest debutants off as the big new social climber?

Her husband was up and coming in the world of politics and a corporate mogul. Their combined wealth was already tremendous. Plus, they were both good looking so their kids would be incredible creations.

Now who was jealous?

I wasn’t certain how I could be since I knew what the marriage would be made of. But Heidi didn’t seem bothered in the least.

As soon as I took my eye off the pool for a blip of a second, everything changed. I placed the phone on the table where I had my towel. Something caught my eye right after that and I would forever be grateful it had.

One of the girls was floating face down in the water, the other three not paying any attention. Neither was anyone else in close proximity. Plus, given the time of night there was only one lifeguard and currently, the guy was too busy chatting on his phone, likely planning on whatever fabulous moment he would be engaging in.

A slight adrenaline rush kicked in and I sprang into action, not even bothering to remove my flipflops. There was no time. As I flew into the air, I yelled for one of the girls to get hotel security.

The hard splash was startling but necessary. I struggled to swim across the pool, the yells of people around me finally kicking in. Thank God for small things.

The moment I reached her, I accepted all the stories about those drowning being dead weight. The moment I tugged and pulled on her, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get her to the side by myself.

“Help me!” I yelled, hoping someone standing around would jump in.

A brief moment of panic rushed in. Until it was like a flying dragon leapt high in the sky, coming down into the water like a beautiful swan.

When all else failed, you asked for a hero. Thankfully, Heidi had one.

In the form of one huge, gorgeous man with arms the size of tree limbs.

And there wasn’t a single woman who wasn’t in awe at his heroics.